From out of the swamps and into the lab, todays Web-headed Wednesday creepyshow is from the November 1954 issue of Uncanny Tales #26, and if for some reason you came here looking for pictures of the other Spider Man, --then your name is clearly Jonah Jameson!
Biology died along with the professor.
ReplyDeleteMy only small, slight complaint is to have the guy at the end step in and explain the ending. I want to point that out first, because other than that, I adore this one.
ReplyDeleteIt's quick, 4 pages, and throws everything up in the air that we'd normally expect. Nosey biddies! Do they get it? No! "Evil" scientist that doesn't hide he's an evil scientist! And his world plan completely and utterly falls apart -- and there's no vengeance anywhere. He dies of old age!
The art is excellent. Yes, the spiders are completely goofy but who cares? Everybody is grizzled! There's a kaiju spiders wrecking an imaginary city! I love this one!
The story was a bit of a damp squib for me, but that splash panel is terrific.
ReplyDeleteWhy did he not notice the gender of spiders he kept?
ReplyDeleteYou'd think he'd know being a biology teacher and all. It is a hilarious punchline to this zany story and I love the splash with the professor as a spider teaching his class. It is kind of amusing to me that some random bloke just shows up and stands over the professor's grave to explain exactly what went wrong. It would have been even funnier if it was a giant spider though.
ReplyDeleteI guess that (Alpine?) guy at the end is the new biology teacher, huh?
ReplyDeleteI love this too. I am very compelled by the time and attention spent cartooning the ladies of town--each face lovingly and individually caricatured, as if Ed Win sat at his art table imagining backstories for each of them as he worked. I love the giant kooky spidergeddon fantasy at the bottom of page three. And I know it's random thing, but I'm really delighted by the color registration creep at the bottom of page two that made Professor Kravadka look as if he's wearing anaglyphic 3D glasses. Sure, this guy's a terrible scientist, and an awful teacher, and even a little lazy--but he's got the glam punk chops in spades!
The bottom of Page 3 is funny. It's sort of the flipside of so many Atlas-Marvel monster stories, that really hit you over the head with the Cold War stuff. In this story the subject is just thrown in casually.
ReplyDeleteSo for a communist takeover, it's important to make sure the fertility question is answered?
ReplyDeleteNot that there's anything wrong with it.
ReplyDeleteThis is really funny, and I didn't see the ending coming. Bravo!
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